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Flanked by civic and religious leaders, Dallas Police Chief David Brown speaks to a crowd attending the vigil for five slain police officers, victims of a sniper attack, at Dallas’ Thanksgiving Square on July 8, 2016.

After the July 2016 ambush shootings of five Dallas police officers, there was much discussion about the dangers of police work and if (or how) the shootings, which also wounded nine officers and two civilians, might damage police-community relations.

Laura Rice, interviewing Wilkison, said: “I wondered if there’s been sort of a heightened sense of fear since Dallas or if officers are also kind of feeling an outpouring of support from communities.”

Wilkison, CLEAT’s executive director, replied: “I think there’s a heightened sense of reality because the fear part, of course officers are trained to deal with that. But Texas has lost the most — and I say that every time you guys invite me on — Texas has lost the most law enforcement officers in the line of duty of any state in America. So that’s absolutely something [police officers] are aware of coming into the job, coming into the profession.”